Message to members of the American Physical Society's
Topical Group on Gravitation, authorized by Patrick Brady,
Secretary/Treasurer, GGR.
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Michael Salamon (NASA Discipline Scientist for Fundamental Physics)
asked me to circulate this message about FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR
GRAVITATIONAL PHYSICS RESEARCH to the Topical Group --- Patrick Brady

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Dear Patrick,


It has come to my attention that many in the gravity community who had intended
to submit proposals to NASA's Astronomy and Physics R&A Program (APRA) had
missed the submission deadline, perhaps because the due date had been moved up
by one month from the previous year. Whatever the reason, it not in NASA's
interest nor the community's interest to have a significant fraction of this
growing field shut out of this year's competition for funding. Therefore I would
like to send a message to the full community to inform them of the remaining
opportunities for funding in this year's proposal cycle.

The first point is that anyone who intends to apply for NASA R&A funding must
read the Research Opportunities in Space Science (ROSS) Announcement that is
issued early in the calendar year each year. To access this document from the
web, go to URL http://spacescience.nasa.gov and click on "Research
Solicitations," then click on "Current (Open) Solicitations," then select
"Research Opportunities in Space Science." All of the Space Science R&A programs
are described in this document, along with their deadlines. *It is the
responsibility of the prospective proposer to read the ROSS early each year* to
obtain program deadlines, as these do change from year to year.

The next point is that although the submission deadline has passed for APRA
(which in previous years was named the Space Astrophysics R&A program), two
other programs, the Astrophysics Theory Program (ATP) and the Astrophysics Data
and Analysis Program (ADAP), have future deadlines of July 16 and July 11, 2003,
respectively. Thus there is a little over a month for the preparation of
proposals for those who still wish to obtain NASA funding.

The ATP and ADAP are disjoint in the proposals they receive. ATP receives theory
proposals, while ADAP receives proposals for data analysis. For example, the ATP
will accept proposals that are focused on the theoretical development of
gravitational waveforms (these may include numerical studies that employ new
mathematical techniques). Other research efforts are also eligible for funding
under the ATP program; please refer to the guidelines for the ATP in the ROSS.
Data analysis efforts, however, are specifically excluded from support by the
ATP.

The ADAP has traditionally been the vehicle for support of data analysis efforts
on *existing* space mission data sets that are available in public archives.
This would appear to exclude proposals for the development of data analysis
techniques for gravitational waveforms, as there are no existing archives of
gravitational wave data from space missions (LISA has not yet flown).
Nevertheless, a careful reading of the ADAP guidelines indicates that such
proposals *are* conforming to the ADAP criteria, as there does exist a publicly
accessible archive of numerically-generated gravitational waveforms expected to
be seen by LISA. This NASA archive, the "Astrophysical Gravitational-Wave
Sources Archive," at http://astrogravs.gsfc.nasa.gov, supplies waveforms from a
wide variety of astrophysical sources. Proposals for data analysis efforts that
employ this archive will be considered compliant for ADAP. Although the average
level of support per grant per year in the ADAP has traditionally been on the
order of $50k, we will accept individual proposals that request up to the order
of $100k/year for three years.

We should also point out that the ROSS will be significantly changed in FY04, in
that the program boundaries of ATP, ADAP, and APRA will undergo some shifting.
Please make sure to obtain the ROSS-2004 when it is published on the web early
next year if you wish to propose next year.

Please contact the ATP Scientist, Michael Salamon, at NASA HQ at 202-358-0441,
or at michael.h.salamon@nasa.gov, if you have any further questions.

--
Please note new email address (as of March 4, 2003):
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Dr. Michael H. Salamon
Discipline Scientist for Fundamental Physics
Astronomy and Physics Division
Office of Space Science


NASA Headquarters         202-358-0441 (office)
Code SZ                   202-358-3096 (fax)
300 E Street SW           michael.h.salamon@nasa.gov
Washington DC 20546-0001
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